There was a slight drizzle for about 10 minutes, but we continued to eat our egg tarts and even walked around and found some nice spots for photos!
left: a dog stuck his head out when we passed by, so cute!
middle: Goong filmed in front of this library ("biblioteca" in Portuguese), unfortunately I couldn't take a photo of how close all the scenes in Goong were, they were all like right next to each other
right: a house with vines growing on it, love the kid running in the photo
We found a red house and took some photos in front of it, and Tien liked the old alleys and temples, however, I wish I wasn't photographed holding all the umbrellas and raincoat... hehehe
left: walking to the Ruins of St. Paul's (Cathedral); right: on the steps (the Ruins of St. Paul's in the back)
Getting a taste of pork jerky (good souvenir to bring back home)
Taking a breather at the top of the stairs, poor tourists, I made them walk non-stop!
left & right: the Ruins of St. Paul's
middle: an alley next to the ruins
St. Paul's Cathedral burned down during a fire, and only the front facade remains, now it's a landmark of Macau and known as Ruins of St. Paul's
Then we went up to the Fort, which is right next to the ruins. The Fort was used as a lookout point when the Dutch tried to invade the Portuguese occupied Macau.
We pretty much forgot about food, except when Tien and her friend went shopping, N.T. and I decided to get food! hahaha... we only planned on getting food for us to try out, so we ended up getting to pork chop buns from two different shops to see which one tasted better, and some friend chicken pieces and a cup of iced green tea. I grabbed 4 straws just in case Tien and her friend wanted a sip, but we ended up sharing everything between the four of us and that was our dinner... now that I think about it, I should have fed my guests a bit more... :P
Well the girls probably had a pretty good time shopping, we ended up leaving Macau around 10:30pm and arrived back at their hotel around midnight.
End of Day 2
Day 3 - Golden Bauhinia Square, Shopping Mongkok, ladies market
Started off our day with one of my FAVOURITE meals - Breakfast!!!! And I love Chinese diner breakfasts!
I got them to try HK style French Toast, a breakfast set (includes eggs however you like them, bun/toast, macaroni in soup, and a drink), I recommended HK style drinks such as iced lemon tea, iced milk tea, iced coffee/milk tea
Then we made our way to the Golden Bauhinia Square, which is located in Wanchai right next to the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. It's also right next to the harbour and some of you who watch Hong Kong dramas will recognize that they will film some scenes here.
Taking the subway (known as the MTR in HK) to Mongkok - cheap shopping district for both tourists and locals
We made a pit stop at another famous HK drama filming location, Langham Place - a shopping centre with an extremely long and steep escalator
left: walking along
middle: toothbrush holders for sale
right: the crowds in Mongkok, I think I picked one of the busiest days of the week, bad decision
Shopping in ladies market
Tien went crazy in Sasa, a beauty "outlet" chain in Hong Kong. Sasa can be seen EVERYWHERE, it's on every street corner. We stepped in, and Tien saw that they had mini samples of perfumes. She is a mini perfume bottle collector, she LOVES them! This was simply heaven for her! LOL
We spent some time in there, and they got a bunch of these mini perfume bottles (with perfume in them) for a really cheap price. The next day when she was at the airport waiting for her flight, she said she saw mini bottles selling for HKD $130 or so, but at Sasa, most of the mini perfume bottles were selling for around $50-60! What a deal!
There was such a huge pile, even the security guard was amused and helped us out from time to time. :)
End of Day 3
Day 4 - The Peak and shopping at Citygate (HK's outlet centre) and then flight back to Vietnam
Sorry, no photos from that day as I didn't get a chance to copy them from Tien.
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After Tien left, Mary, another friend from Toronto was also visiting Hong Kong and I brought her to similar places. It was fun showing them around Hong Kong as I was a bit more experienced by now and had a better idea of the routes to take and also what things to point out to them. They made a trip to Macau by themselves and probably found out even more stuff, wish I could have gone to learn more! :)
I have to say thanks to all my friends for visiting Hong Kong, not only did I get a chance to see you all, but you gave me the opportunity to get to know my Home again. I learned to see the beauty of this city through your eyes.